'never again during the remainder of his journey to San Francisco would he equal or surpass this day's eighty-eight-mile effort. furthermore, never again on the trip would he encounter roads as fine as those he met in the Cornhusker state. riding through Wyoming and every state or territory thereafter, Nellis would long for the "excellent paths" of Nebraska.' - An American Cycling Odyssey, 1887

Sunday, March 30, 2008

a little neighbor came by to check out my new t-check frame. i had just rust proofed the inside of the frame tubes with some boeing T9 and set it outside in the wind to dry a bit before building it up. san fran here i come!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008

there are no bike messengers in lincoln, but there are hipsters. on my midnight latte runs from work i've noticed more and more fixed gear bikes parked outside the coffee houses and bars downtown. i think the snob would take solace in that atleast this old raleigh conversion didn't have a trendy top tube pad. instead it's top tube was just wrapped with some old green cork bartape (perhaps he's saving up for custom pad?). i did notice the spoke card on the rear wheel. way back in the early 90's those would only be seen on bikes ridden by hardcore messengers in big cities who earned the cards at dangerous alleycat races and traded them to other messengers. but no longer, it's pretty much all fair game now. you can see kids out there on their fixed gears, who probably have no idea what a velodrome or an alleycat is, buying messenger bags and running a card of his or her favorite band that no one knows about for that ultimate symbol of hipster cred. yes, the apocalypse is near. oh well, if you can't beat'em.... as they say. i might make one myself and put it on celestina. perhaps something that makes me look tuff, or maybe just a picture of some black kitties.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

i broke off from the team fire group ride to get in some more miles and headed west. the sky was getting dark but i figured it wouldn't rain. like usual i was wrong. despite getting wet i had fun hauling back to town from the denton alps in the rain, pushing the 53x12 on a few downhill sections... with a tailwind ofcourse. my bike is now covered in road grit (which is hazardous to a 10sp drivetrain) and that means i will now have to actually clean it.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Saturday, March 01, 2008

after my usual saturday radio thing i met up with my friend jose. we rode over to that new place in the haymarket, the bread and cup, for a few brews and sandwiches (the food rocks). jose is an aspiring musician and hopefully he'll come and play a few songs on my radio show next week. his stage name is joey bottles ('pepe botellas', the nickname for joseph bonaparte while he was king of spain) and he's moving to chicago in a month to form a band. so when he makes it big in the rock en espanol world people in lincoln can say they heard him play here first.

while i was at d'leons having a quick breakfast (a steak ranchero) these two younger guys ride up and smoke a few before going inside to eat. when i was leaving i noticed their bikes. keeping my surly crosscheck company outside was a bmx bike and an old schwinn cruiser, but not just any cruiser. it was an original black phantom. i don't think the guy had any clue what it was. he kind of looked like a farm kid though, so perhaps he got it from a relative's barn or something, who knows. it looked complete and in decent shape. i thought about going back inside to ask the guy about it and see if he'd wanted sell it, but i decided not to.